*Casually updates*

I'm so sorry for the long streak of not updating. Sorry for being a lazy author, school stressed me out. The crushing pressure of exams, Heath was right. I'll try to update more often! And as soon as possible! I'm really sorry for the wait! I hope that you would enjoy this chapter!

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"Now we're like, really a team!" Riku excitingly says.

"I've been waiting for this!" I state as we all went into our positions. "Okay, your best smile please!"

~*~

"It's over... It's finally over..." Heath says, seated with his finger intertwined. From that posture, he suddenly stood up and said; 

"Final exams... Are finally over!!" Heath was relieved about the exams while Riku joined him. "And none too soon!"

"Exams, what exams! Exams, no more!" Heath began to sing, celebrating with Riku, who also started to sing along. "Exam results, don't think about them! Not now!"

"Heath-senpai?..." I trailed off, staring at them.

"What happened to Hasekura-senpai...?" Nana asked, looking at Heath and Riku as they sang.

"Not surprised about Yagami, but..." Takeru stated.

"After being released from the crushing pressure of exams, Heath-kun descends into idiocy to maintain his self-esteem." Kohinata explained.

"Limitless idio-potential, Captain!" Kadowaki nicknamed, adjusting his glasses.

"And now, the final tournament arrives. Looking back, we really went through a lot." Heath says, remembering the events that happened.

"Indeed." Kadowaki agrees with a wobbly voice in front of the fan.

"The Hakone Mountains are the steepest, steeper than the fabled Kankokukan." Heath sang recalling the past.

"Ise supports Tsu and Tsu supports Ise, the castle supports Nagoya." Riku continued.

"Does this happen often?..." I questioned with a sweat drop.

"And finally, the ice-top battle to the death up north in Okhotsk!- Those were truly difficult battles." Kadowaki says with his hand under his chin.

"Yes, yes- Hey, stop getting creative with my memories!" Heath said.

"Well, he's right about how tough it was." Kohinata added with everyone nodding their head.

"Whatever. Summer is finally here. The summer where we climb to the top!" Heath states making everyone smile.

"The tournament is important too, but how did you do on your exams?" Dan-sensei asked as he came inside the room.

"We have no confidence, sir!" Takeru and Riku boldly answered.

"Wow. You two can agree on things..." Kohinata said with everyone else sweat dropping.

"At any rate... I have good news for you." Dan-sensei gained our attention. "Good news?!" Riku and I simultaneously said.

"Joint training."

~*~

We have arrived, and we were currently admiring the building. "Whoa... What the?" Riku softly sneezed. "So bright..."

"This entire building just for Stride...?" Kohinata says taking a good look at the building. "Truly amazing." Kadowaki complimented.

"I will go speak to the teachers. You all follow their instructions." Dan-sensei instructed and left.

"Hello, guys. Thanks for coming." Reiji greeted with his teammates by his side.

"We have been eagerly awaiting your arrival." Shizuma added.

"And we've been eagerly waiting to arrive here." I say playfully going to Reiji and Shizuma, who both chuckled at my remark.

"Hey, Riku!" Asuma called out to Riku.

"Welcome!" They shared a high-five and exchanged smiles.

"It's Kuga-san! Welcome, Kuga-san!" Kaede ran towards Kyosuke and welcomed him.

"We don't have time to play around before the tournament." Tasuku stated. "Oh please, Tasuku, you must be all, burning, throbbing, Jangara-ing inside!" Bantaro commented.

"The last one is a type of ramen... Huh?!" Tasuku was caught off guard by Takeru touching his leg. "Good legs... I look forward to this."

"There it is! Leg maniac Takeru!" I exclaimed pointing to Takeru, who attempted to touch Bantaro's leg but Bantaro took a step back, avoiding it.

"I think it's better if we go inside now..." I say with a little laugh, gazing at Takeru.

"Okay, follow me please." Shizuma said. We all agreed, can't wait to see the inside.

Later, we have finally got in the building. The first thing we all did was stare in awe at the contents of the building.

"Wow..." We were enjoying the sight in front of us, looking at the different types of equipment they had.

"This is..." Heath started.

"Like, wow..." Riku continued.

"It's a Stride... paradise!" Kadowaki exclaims happily.

"I'm starting to want to transfer." Takeru was looking over to himself at the window.

"No! Takeru's heart is tempted!" Kohinata panicked pointing over to him.

"Ha, ha. In terms of Stride training infrastructure, Saisei is probably number one in Japan." Asuma told us with his hands behind his head.

"As expected of a celebrity school..." I quietly said.

"Let's start off with a practice match." Reiji stated with a smile. "A practice match? In here?" Riku looked around as he questioned.

"Come, follow us." Reiji says, leading the way over to another room.

We arrived there in no time and we were currently scanning the place, from top to bottom. "No wonder they're good." Heath commented.

"But, with no external effects like the wind, this is not an accurate representation of a real match." Kyosuke said with his fingers at the bottom of his chin.

"Aha, behold! With a press of this bottom, I reveal this feature!" Bantaro presented as he tapped on a device and fans around the room started up.

"And over here... Tada! Wind training!"

"No time to lose against fans!" I stated as I ran behind Kyosuke, fired up, slowly getting behind while the others were also falling behind.

"Do they know no limits...?" Heath and Nana sweat dropped.

Reiji later instructed to find a partner to run with. The pairings were:

Riku vs. Asuma, Kyosuke vs. Kaede, Kohinata vs. Hozumi, Heath vs. Tasuku, Reiki vs. Takeru.

Me and Kadowaki agreed that Kyosuke would run for this practice match, I bet Kaede is all pumped up, now that he would run with Kyosuke. Everyone else was paired up like the match before, and now getting ready for the race.

"The equipment is basically the same as at the trial tour games, but some of the software is newer here. Let me show you how it works." Shizuma informed Nana and taught her how to use the software.

Long story short, Riku started out with the lead while Asuma held back and waited for Shizuma's signal to go at full speed, Asuma swiftly went ahead of our team by a small distance. Kyosuke and Kaede were neckin' neck to each other, resulting a simultaneous tag with the next runners, Ban-chan and Kohinata.

Kohinata was falling behind while Bantaro started off on full speed and kept his pace, Kohinata knew that he couldn't trick Bantaro that easily, all he could do was keep him in sight and run. Next Tasuku and Heath, Tasuku had retained the lead given to him and was ahead of Heath all the way. In the end, Reiji had beaten Takeru in the final part of the course, resulting our team lose by three seconds.

The team had gathered in a spot and they were all tired, catching their breath from the match.

"Wow, three seconds behind..." Heath said, heavily breathing.

"I started off pretty good too...." Riku complained, laying down on the floor.

Shizuma walked in and announced, "Okay, it's time." Saisei immediately followed and jogged off to another room of the building.

"Heh?" I questioned, not aware of what is happening, looking over to Shizuma. While the Kohinata had also reacted.

"Please, this way." said Shizuma, gesturing to wherever Saisei had went off to.

We obeyed Shizuma's instructions and followed Saisei to the room. It only took a small jogged going there but inside the room, we were greeted by a running equipment and the idols having no trouble using it, they didn't even look tired!

"Come here, guys." Saisei's captain persuaded.

"Are you serious?"

"Incredible..."

The comments made us all nod. After, Kadowaki made up an excuse for himself, saying that he would train on image training, stating that it was really important. Yet Heath didn't buy the excuse and dragged him with him, going towards the running equipment.

While I, on the other hand, wasn't up for it either. By instinct, I made an excuse without second thoughts.

"I think I left my stapler at the other room... You guys go on ahe-!" before I could run off, Kyosuke grabbed the back of my shirt that made me stumble backwards.

"Stapler? Try to make a more convincing excuse." He remarked, as he also dragged me over to the running equipment that was next to his.

I got in place next to Kyosuke, I only started with a slow but steady pacing as I looked over to Gal-Stan, who didn't have a problem at all, with a fast and steady pace, making it look easy.

Later, Reiji had instructed a '15-second sprint.' Meaning we had to go faster. I followed and started to go faster but the faster I went, the more stamina I was losing. Resulting, not just me but as well as my other teammates, a red face, trying to keep it up.

As soon as I heard that it was finish and we could take a break, I immediately stopped and sat on the floor, catching my breath. I was lucky enough not to participate the first practice match or I would have been worse. I leaned on the wall with a towel over my sweat-drenched hair while Heath, Kyosuke, Reiji and Bantaro was chatting.

When I regained back composure, I stood up and as if on queue; "Okay, next practice!" announced Heath. 'Already?!' I mentally complained about it but replied 'yes,' anyway.

~*~

3rd Person's POV

"Itadakimasu!~" they all cheered and started to eat the food placed on the table before them.

"Oh, I'm so hungry!!" Riku yelled out, Asuma agreeing with him and got a small glance of Takeru's food at the edge of his eye.

"Hmmm? Rice flavoring?"

"Proteins." Takeru answered while Riku back away a bit, also gaining the attention of Shizuma.

"Fujiwara-kun, there is no need for that." He told him in a nice manner. "Our dietitians and cooks are perfect."

"From what I see, the chicken teriyaki contains 300kcals and 20g of proteins. The miso soup, conquette, and stew, combined and compared our training content, calculates to about 73g more proteins needed before myogenesis, correct?" Takeru pointed out.

"I think I need a calculator..." Ichinose says trying to catch up on the topic.

"Actually, extra protiens have been kneaded into the teriyaki. We have spent about 1800kcals today so far. With basal metabolism added, we need to recover about 4000 kcals through meals. The menu looks fairly light, but each item is actually loaded with all sorts of nutrients to help myogenesis." Shizuma explained with Ichinose listening to their conversation.

"What?! So these apples too?!" Takeru and Ichinose questioned in sync.

"Of course."

"Desert! Apple eating contest!" Asuma suddenly challenged Riku, since they both have already finished their meal.

"I'm on!" Riku gladly accepted.

"Wait." Takeru stated, making them look over to him, he was claiming that he would also join and so did Reiji, both emitting a burning aura. "I'll be the referee!" Nana volunteered.

The four had sat down with  stack of apples in front of each on of them. Nana took this sign as a ready.

"Ready... Go!"

Shun's POV

After meal time was a bath. This is one of the consequences of cross dressing. Fortunately, I already had a plan before hand. While they held their little competition, I 'accidentally' spilled some of my drink on myself. I genuinely jumped at the coldness of the drink while my cousin, Kyosuke, looked at me.

I winked real fast to signal him of my current situation while he just stood calm, understood and acted like it was normal to also make the others think it was normal.

"I think I'll go ahead... cold cold cold..." I say as I weirdly walked away, trying not to make further contact with my cold wet shirt.

"I'll help you find the bathroom, Ichinose-kun." Shizuma said politely.

"Ahh... Sure, thanks." I slowly nodded, then again, I didn't know where the bathroom was.

I quietly followed Shizuma while keeping my cool. Inside, I was panicking, mentally yelling to myself, 'WHAT AM I GOING TO DO NOW?!'

I could see the bathroom from a distance. We were in front of the two rooms; male and female bathrooms.

I need to think and act calm.

I need a plan.

I need a good excuse.

What excuse though?

'Hahaha.... I'm screwed... hehe...' I laughed at myself. A small drop of sweat sliding on the side of my head.